Getting More Out of Your Retirement
By Steve Gaito
McDowell County
I am a CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER TM practitioner, which means I always put my client’s needs first. It also means that I am always looking to get more for you out of what you have. Recently I have been hosting events to help people understand the impact taxes and long-term care have on current assets and the assets left behind for a spouse or estate. For most of my life, I have worked in the financial services industry. I started by setting up retirement plans to help people save for retirement. I have managed money. I taught both advisors and clients how to get the most out of Social Security and now have morphed into helping people strategically allocate their resources to get all they can out of what they have saved. I must say I have never had this much fun in my career. What most people do not realize is that there is an efficient way to organize your retirement resources to make them last longer. This is knowing when, what, and how to take distributions from your assets. To illustrate this, I would like to share some examples from the cases I have worked on recently.
One of the couples I worked with had done a good job saving and had no debt. They believed that they had sufficient assets to last a lifetime. After evaluating their situation, it was clear that they did not realize the impact that taxes and inflation had on their savings. Their savings would run out when they were 88 years old and would have to rely on Social Security for income. By reallocating some of their assets and creating a more tax-efficient withdrawal strategy we were able to extend the assets to age 95 and have both an estate benefit and extra income once the assets were depleted.
Another couple had not considered the impact a long-term care event would have on their assets. Without a long-term care event, they had adequate assets to live to age 100, but if either of them had a long-term care event the surviving spouse would have to live on just Social Security. This is not what either wanted to do. By understanding how to use Long-term care insurance we were able to minimize the risk and provide assets to age 95.
The third couple had plenty of income and more than likely would not need all of it for income. Given that the government debt has exploded and in their case most of their money that was in retirement accounts and subject to taxes, I was able to create a plan that provided tax-free income later in life and the ability to pass along money to heirs’ income tax-free. I also created a strategic plan for distributions to draw down retirement assets now while taxes are low to have fewer taxes later when they would not have any control over the distributions.
I am considering providing retirement workshops in the Marion area in the near future to share my expertise, but if you would like to know more go to my website and take advantage of the free books and other resources. You can also schedule an appointment and come to my office for a free initial consultation.
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Steve is the owner of Faith-Based Health Care and Retirement Resource Management. He is a National Speaker on the topic of Social Security optimization, quoted in national publications like Money Magazine, US News and World Reports, and Fox Business. Steve loves to educate and teach on financial topics like taxation of retirement accounts, long term care, healthcare, and efficient savings plans for small businesses. He has provided financial planning for missionaries through the International Mission Board. You can find Steve at 68 South Main St. in Marion, NC by calling 828-559-0299, email steve@faithbasedhc.com or visit his website at www.faithbasedhc.com.
Read more good Christian news from Steve Gaito HERE.
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